25 Songs for 25 Years, no. 16

One of the nice things about living in Pasadena is that the downtown area is pretty lively; Old Town was a pretty hip spot for a long time, and it's still a cool place to go on a Friday or Saturday night. It wasn't always so. For a few decades, Old Town was the local Skid Row. Fortunately for us, we moved to Pasadena at the dawning of the downtown revitalization; there were lots of funky shops opening, but also a bunch of dive bars still in business, and the bums were gradually being replaced by street performers.

One night, Terri and I were taking a walk and enjoying the street life, when we happened upon an itinerant saxophone player. He told us he took requests, so I told him to play whatever he never gets to play and wished more people would request and handed him a buck. He played the slinkiest, sexiest version of Van Morrison's "Moondance" that I'd ever heard while Terri and I danced on the sidewalk. I later used the song as the inspiration for yet another Valentine's card.

Moondance